Don’t Fall into the Third-Party Mobile Applications Trap

ICTO’s Information Security Team received an information security notification about a third-party mobile app that provides information services to the students of higher education institutions in Hong Kong. It offers discounts for shopping and offers coupon, job vacancy information to attract students to use the app.

The app is not approved by the relevant institutions. It requires users to associate their student account with the app in order to retrieve information. Use of such app may result in account being compromised or personal data falling into wrong hands.

At the moment, similar apps are not available in Macao. However, in order to reduce the risk of student accounts being compromised or personal data loss, we strongly recommend UM staff and students to take the following to consideration:

Do not associate your UMPASS account and password with any un-official and unauthorised app or website;

Do not install unknown apps and ensure the apps are downloaded and installed from trusted app store;

Do not open attachment or URL link in an email and any instant message which is sent from an unidentified sender;

If you have found or you suspect that your account is compromised, please change your account password immediately;